Thursday Recruitin' Gets PTSD

Today's recruiting roundup covers newest commit Bryan Mone, what's shaping up to be a big visit weekend next week, the latest on Lawrence Marshall, and more.

More Mone

Salt Lake City (UT) Highland DT Bryan Mone became Michigan's third 2014 commit on Tuesday, and Sam Webb caught up with Mone in the wake of his commitment—the rising senior told Webb that his commitment came as a surprise to the coaches, who said he could be a versatile presence on the defensive line ($):

Until then the talented youngster plans to work hard to improve his game. He has given up basketball for dedicate all of his free time to doing just that.

“I’m just lifting and getting faster after school now,” Mone reported. “I need to get slimmer. I’m getting too overweight. Focusing in the classroom is the main thing, but other than that it’s just getting faster, stronger, and trimming down my weight. I’m at about 340 lbs. now, and I want to get down to about 315 lbs.”

While Mone looked to be in shape at around 300 pounds last fall, I'm guessing he's carrying some bad weight at 340; if he's giving up basketball to get in shape, that hopefully won't be an issue moving forward. Webb also talked to Mone's high school coach, who gave more insight on both his football and leadership abilities ($):

“He had 75-plus tackles, 12 for loss, five sacks, and forced four fumbles… but then he turns around and starts on the offensive line,” Benson stated. “The kid never comes off the field. To be 300 lbs. and yet be able to do that, it says a lot about him as a player and his work ethic. He works his guts out in the weight room and does a real good job for us. He is big, strong, powerful, and tenacious. He flat gets after it. He uses his hands very well and he has real good feet for a big guy. He changes directions reallywell. He still has a lot to work on and he knows that. He is a kid that is never settled with where he is at, which is good. He is also very humble. He always makes sure that he directs everything towards his teammates. He is not a ‘me’ guy, he is a ‘we’ guy. He definitely is a great teammate and wants to promote his fellow players.”

Mone's coach also insists that his only visits will be to Michigan; he seems very solid in his commitment, especially since he'd maintained the Wolverines as his leader for months prior to making his pledge.

[Hit THE JUMP for the adventures of Lawrence Marshall and some big-time visitors for the next two weekends.]

Decommitted: Lawrence Marshall

Concerns about Michigan's ability to hold onto the top in-state prospects grew when four-star Southfield DE Lawrence Marshall committed to Ohio State on Sunday. Those concerns should be greatly mitigated after this series of events:

Is your process completely over? Do you plan on taking any more visits?

I do not plan on taking any more visits. Ohio State is the pick.

Tuesday: Marshall visits Michigan State to take in the Basketball Game That Must Not Be Named.Wednesday: Marshall spends several hours taking in Michigan's campus with the coaching staff.Wednesday night:

I had a great time at Michigan State yesterday, I had a wonderful time at Michigan today, an and ever better time at Ohio State but I want

Clearly, Marshall made his initial decision without quite thinking everything through, and he understandably wants to open his recruitment back up and take more time with the process. Sam Webb talked to Marshall after his Michigan visit and subsequent decommitment ($):

“Just being up at Michigan (Wednesday) opened my eyes (more),” stated Marshall. “Talking to players like Denard Robinson… he is from Florida and he was telling me the good and bad and just being real with me. Seeing everything, talking to the coaching staff… all the coaching staff was up there and I was talking to everybody.”

“I literally spent the whole day with Brady Hoke. I was with him the whole day. I was also with Coach Montgomery, Coach Mattison, and Coach Jackson. I got up there like 4:30pm and I left Michigan around 8:30. It was one-on-one (attention) the whole day.”

Marshall told Webb he'll be back at Michigan State this weekend, then head to Michigan the following weekend, in what is shaping up to be a...

That's Michigan's quarterback commit talking up a big visit weekend centered on the Illinois basketball game on the 24th; he mentions fellow commit Michael Ferns, current MSU pledge Drake Harris, and four-star Florida OL Mason Cole as fellow visitors. Those visitors have been confirmed by multiple outlets. Also making his way to campus that weekend will be four-star NC RB Elijah Hood, who recently said Michigan is tied for fifth in his recruitment. Sam Webb also says that Cole's high school teammates, 2014 WR Artavis Scott and 2015 ATH George Campbell, could accompany him on the visit—both hold offers.

Barring some highly unexpected developments, this won't be the eight-commit bonanza that last February's Ohio State basketball game brought upon us. I still won't be entirely comfortable leaving my laptop for any significant stretch of time next weekend.

Michigan has also confirmed a significant visitor for this Sunday, as well, in IL CB Parrker Westphal, per Steve Lorenz ($). The Wolverines are believed to be at or near the top of the list for Westphal, who's been to campus several times at this point.

Etc.

Michigan continues its onslaught of 2014 offers now that the class of 2013 is in the books. The coaches reached out to four-star LA TE Jacory Washington, a current LSU commit who nevertheless wanted to hear from the Wolverines, per Steve Lorenz ($):

"Michigan is a school I hadn't heard a lot from," he said. "I was hoping to. It's a school that has loads of tradition on and off the field and I noticed they did a good job of getting the ball to their young tight ends last year. I'm really excited about this offer. They have a great program."

Washington says he's "definitely" planning to check out Michigan; it sounds like he's not exactly firm in his LSU commitment.

The Wolverines also offered GA LB Bryson Allen-Williams on Tuesday, per 247.

"UCLA, Michigan, LSU, Florida and Texas A&M are sort of sticking out right now," Jackson said. "I'm not trying to make a decision right away or anything like that but those schools have already made an impression on me."

Hopkins notes in the article that it's "widely speculated" that UCLA, LSU, and USC—the third interestingly absent from his top five—are the teams to beat for Jackson.

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Does anyone know if anything is going on with Corey Holmes? IIRC he was the guy who said he grew up loving Michigan and would love to go there. He checks in at #224 but I don't recall hearing anything about him

Adoree' Jackson has very good patience and vision. He reminds me of Denard on some of those runs with the way he waits, sets up the block, and then boom goes the dynamite. Jackson wasn't in a rush to get to a hole that wasn't there; he really helps out his OL.

Make sure you figure out exactly which recruits are going to be there and chant their names. It is your direct responsibility to recruit these kids, and if you don't chant their names the have zero motivation to come to Michigan.

Of the guys I think Michigan has a legitimate shot at, here's a quick list (I'm writing this off the top of my head, so any glaring omissions are likely exactly that):

1. Da'Shawn Hand — Top prospect in the country has M in his top five, so he's a clear choice for number one.

2. Malik McDowell — If he played against better competition in HS I think he'd have a great chance at being a five-star. As it is, he's still very close.

3. Drake Harris — Getting a top-flight wideout would be big. Getting a top-flight in-state wideout from State (and OSU, and the rest of the country...) would be bigger.

4. Jabrill Peppers and/or Adoree' Jackson — I'm cheating here, but grabbing an elite corner would be great, and both of these guys have expressed legitimate interest. Still just an outside shot for both, IMO.

5. Damian Prince — Ditto for this five-star OL.

6. Mason Cole — Top-100 offensive lineman who Michigan may very well lead for.

7. Alex Bars — Ditto.

8. Tyler Luatua — I'd love to see Michigan continue to stockpile talent at TE, and he's the best in the country.

9. Parrker Westphal — Getting him would ease a lot of the hurt from losing Damon Webb to OSU (Webb would be high up on this list, but he seems firm in his commitment).

10. Artavis Scott — Cole's HS teammate is a hell of an athlete at WR and they could be a package deal.

I'm sure I left out several worthy candidates, but that's a rough list. All of the above guys have at least mentioned Michigan as being in contention. Of the above, they've got the best shot at landing McDowell, Cole, Westphal, Bars, and Scott, IMO.

On McDowell, Rivals currently rates him at #21 overall, which would put him in the five star range once they rate all of the three stars, etc. They always bump up their number of five stars till it's around 30.

Supposedly our coaches started ignoring Barnes at some point after he committed. It's one of those things where we only hear the recruit's side of the story, but I don't recall any of our recruiting sites ever denying it.

Usually I try to give the consensus of the recruit, but since rankings just got released for 2014 sometimes I go with what's in the article I'm linking. Moving forward I'll do my best to give the most accurate consensus ranking—sometimes I'm up against a deadline and opening four tabs for every recruit is cumbersome.

Mone is not playing basketball because he wants to get in shape? I'm not sure what that means. When I was in HS I couldn't keep enough fat on me during basketball season to prevent losing strength. Maybe he doesn't want to lose too much weight?

During my years at Michigan we had Tripp Welbourne, then Ty Law, then Charles Woodson... then after I was gone, came a few good ones notably Leon Hall, but I am surprised that we haven't had a chain of total stud CBs after Woodson won the Heisman.... I would think that an elite CB would WANT to play for us, considering Woodson was allowed to play both ways and on special teams, too. I'd have thought by a now that an elite two way player would have came our way in these past twenty years, or that the very least, that CB would always be manned by at least one stud on the roster. When I hear of a guy like Jackson I think, ok, were gonna finally get another one, but then it seems not to happen. Maybe it is because CB could be the hardest to predict success. Am I wrong to think this?

You seem to be confusing him with Dior Mathis, who went to Cass Tech, had an offer from Michigan, but committed to Oregon.

We've had highly rated cornerbacks in recent years, but not the same caliber of guys that came in the late '90s and early 2000s, like Woodson, Jackson, Hall, etc. Warren and Cissoko were highly rated, and then we got head cases like Justin Turner and Demar Dorsey as our most recent highly rated guys. Since Cissoko in the class of '08, we haven't really had a guy contribute who was a consensus elite recruit.

A side note... Woodson was a great overall player, from DB to KR to WR, and even couldve been a good RB..... but strictly as a corner, I thought Ty Law was the best that I saw that we had, no joke.

Interesting too that with all the CassTech CBs and/or from the PSL, that the great ones we've had all seemed to have come from out of state... Wellborne was I think from NC, Woodson from Ohio, Law and Jackson from PA, I think Hall from CA.

It just seems odd that we had a great one in Woodson, and that the coaching staffs would know what to look for ever since, and nothing has even come close to Woodson... I'd have thought that an uptick in general CB quality would have occured, and it hasn't. Instead we keep after these small Cass Tech cbs that never seem to pan out... so losing Webb to OSU is not a big deal for me... Id rather get our CBs somewhere else, based on the history there.